Final Breath: Flash Burnt Crucifixes Review

Final Breath is a band from Germany that plays death/thrash metal in a similar style to Darkane, The Crown and other Swedish bands. Their death metal influences seem to be more on the Swedish side of things, bands like Dismember and Grave can be heard through their music. Their thrash metal influences are more likely their German countrymen like Sodom, Kreator, and Destruction. It is a volatile mix of extreme metal bands and yet it is seemless.

This is Final Breath’s debut full length album after forming in 1993 and releasing one demo and one EP. It is pretty obvious that this is their debut and they have had limited experience. The song titles are a little odd and show a limited grasp on the English language, or they’re jokes, tough to say which. Just look at these titles: “Going Hellbound”, “Sociopathetically Insane”, and “Bloodred Sky”. The album cover and band logo are obviously amateur but none of these things affect the music.

The guitar riffs have a little bit of the typical Swedish tone, but are delivered in a riffing style that has more in common with the German thrash scene. The riffs are not delivered at the same breakneck speed as the German thrash of the 1980's , but they are nowhere near groove metal speeds either, more of some healthy medium.

The drums are recorded pretty high in the mix. They are easily heard. They are often used more for keeping time than for doing much else, although there are quite a few interesting fills thrown in between guitar riffs. They are played very fast with a major emphasis on the snare drum as opposed to the rest of the kit.

The vocals are mostly shouted and gruff bringing to mind mid-era Grave. They do not change much, which is not that unusual for the style of music being played.

There really is not much original going on here. This style of music has been played before and probably played better, this is not a lost gem or anything like that and is by no means essential. However, the album is competent and interesting. It’s not a bad release by any means.

The band essentially sounds like Hating Life-era Ola Lindgren fronting a slowed-down Kreator. Not a bad mix whatsoever, as the band pulls it off quite well. As stated before, this is a decent album, just not original or essential.